A Decision-Making Model Based on TOPSIS, WASPAS, and MULTIMOORA Methods for University Location Selection Problem

Pınar Miç,Z Figen Antmen

doi:10.1177/21582440211040115

Abstract

With the growing population increase and following young population’s desire to study at the university, political authorities are supporting university and higher education investments, especially in the last 10 years. This situation has increased the number of universities considerably. Because a university will provide socioeconomic dynamism to both the development of the country and the region, choosing the right university location has become a significant problem nowadays. In line with this, this study is focused on supporting the new university location decision in a wide region in Turkey where currently the number of universities in the region is relatively low despite the high population density in the area. Alternative cities to be utilized in the study are determined particularly taking the demographic structure into consideration and various multicriteria decision-making (MCDM) techniques are applied. Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS), Weighted Aggregated Sum Product Assessment (WASPAS), and Multi-Objective Optimization on the Basis of Ratio Analysis (MOORA) are applied to a real case study. Related criteria and alternative locations are specified by consulting seven experts. Within the study, both the results of these methods are presented, and also sensitivity analyses are conducted to observe how sensitive the results are to the changes in the criteria weights. The results obtained are purposed to aid decision makers in this field.

Highlights

Universities are considered fundamental institutions that have major roles in the social, cultural, economic, scientific, and technological progress of a country
While taking into consideration the points related to campus/university location selection, and reflecting on these selection issues, it is necessary to admit that the background reasons and results of location selections are physical
This article compared the application of three different multicriteria decision-making (MCDM) methods with the selection of a new university location problem

Summary

Introduction

Universities are considered fundamental institutions that have major roles in the social, cultural, economic, scientific, and technological progress of a country. A university can basically be defined as a “higher education institution based on scientific information production and constitutes of faculty or another unit which operates in various disciplines” (Bozkurt et al, 1998). Facility location has a significant place in planning and has a direct impact on factors which effect planning (Turner, 1987). Since the 1950s and 1960s, planning action has become an important factor in the university concept (Muthesius, 2001). University campus plans are directly linked with modern urban planning and cannot be considered independent from urban plans (Christiaanse, 2006). While taking into consideration the points related to campus/university location selection, and reflecting on these selection issues, it is necessary to admit that the background reasons and results of location selections are physical

Objectives

Methods

Results